A blog about digital rhetoric that asks the burning questions about electronic bureaucracy and institutional subversion on the Internet.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Suspended Animation

The death of a political website is always a strange spectacle, although Hillary Clinton will obviously preserve her domain name, since she likely continues to have ambitions for higher office that will last until long after the 2008 campaign season. Right now her website is in a strange state of suspended animation, despite Barack Obama's clinching of the nomination. The masthead still reads "Hillary for President," although the splash page says to "Support Senator Obama Today."

In viral political video, we see the Zeitgeist of feminist supporters supposedly moving from anger to irony.

Before:

After:

Note how the first video switches from the genre of the news montage to the genre of the Ken Burns effect music video, while the second uses the popular "fake news" format.

As a rhetorician, I am often interested in who makes a given online video and why. Videos circulate and appear in new contexts; links are e-mailed; content is embedded. Those who made the video may have agendas about self-promotion as well as protest. See the origins of the "Mad as Hell/Bitch" video here. More about Sarah Haskins of the Target Women videos is here.